Method and apparatus for enhancing online searching

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus are provided for processing search results obtained in response to a user query. This may include examining document pointers returned by a search engine to identify a source from which the documents are available and generating at least two visual abstracts of each of the documents. Each of the visual abstracts may be of a different size. The method and system may also include formatting a stream of data such that when the data is displayed, a smaller one of the visual abstracts appears adjacent to a corresponding search result.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to online search technologiesand document summarizations. More specifically, the present inventionrelates to a method and apparatus for efficiently processing searchresults obtained in response to a user query.

2. Description of the Related Art

An important use of computers is the transfer of information over anetwork. Currently, the largest computer network in existence is theInternet, which, as is well known, is a worldwide interconnection ofcomputer networks that communicate using a common protocol. Millions ofcomputers, from low end personal computers to high end super computers,are connected to the Internet.

In the late 1980s, a new type of information system, known as the WorldWide Web (“the Web”) was introduced to the Internet. As is well known,the Web is a wide-area hypermedia information retrieval system aimed togive wide access to a large universe of documents.

The architecture of the Web follows a conventional client-server model.The terms “client” and “server” refer to a computer's general role as arequester of data (i.e, the client) or a provider of data (i.e., theserver). In the Web environment, Web browsers are clients and Webdocuments reside on servers. Web clients and Web servers communicateusing a protocol called “Hypertext Transfer Protocol” (HTTP). A browseropens a connection to a server and initiates a request for a document.The server delivers the requested document, typically in the form of atext document coded in a standard Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)format.

Portions of documents displayed on the Web may contain hypertext links.The hypertext links link graphics or text on one document with anotherdocument on the Web. Each hypertext link is associated with a UniversalResource Locator (URL). A URL specifies a server and a particulardocument on that server. When a user selects a hypertext link, using,for instance, a cursor, the browser connects to the server and retrievesthe document(s) specified by the URL(s).

Some servers provide a means for searching a collection of documents.Upon initial request, the server supplies a form to the browser. Theuser, using the browser, enters data such as keywords on this form aspart of a search query and then opens a new connection to the server andsubmits this data to the server. The server responds to this requestwith a new document listing, some or all of the documents matching thosekey words or other data requested by the browser. Each listed documentnormally includes a hypertext link to the actual document so that theuser may easily retrieve that document.

Today, finding information as easily and quickly as possible has becomea crucial problem. The World Wide Web contains millions of documentsspread over hundreds of thousands of computers throughout the world.Although hypertext links tie all these documents together, thedistributed architecture of the Web produces an incoherent system thatoften makes it very difficult for users to locate documents of interest.

Search engines have become more and more important with the continuousgrowth of information in order to find and retrieve information from alarge repository such as the Internet and databases. As is well known,current search technology is usually based on an electronic search form,where the user enters keywords to form a query. As discussed above, thequery is submitted to the search engine, which in turn presents links tothe matching resources in the repository, a document title, or possiblesummary information in the form of a short abstract of the originaldocument. This abstract may be generated automatically and may containthe essence of the document. The user must then determine the relevanceor importance of a document by reviewing the title and/or the abstractof the document presented in the result page of the search.

The larger the result set, the longer it takes the user to review thedocument titles and abstracts of the search results. Research has shownthat a typical user will only carefully review the first five to tenresult summaries for a particular search. However, search results maycontain several hundred or several thousands of hits. Techniques, suchas Boolean query language, may be used to limit and narrow down thenumber of hits.

A result set of ten to twenty hits may still take considerable time andeffort to review because of the time required for reading the title andabstract. To really ensure whether a document is an ideal match to thesearch query, a user still has to open (i.e., view) a document. Thismeans, however, that by clicking on a hyperlink (URL) and accessing adocument resource with a web browser, the document content must bedownloaded from the server to the client before viewing. It may take aconsiderable amount of time to access the document which therefore slowsdown the whole process. After downloading a document from the server,the user may then determine that the downloaded document is not a goodmatch for the original search query. The user may then continue to readthrough the rest of the original result page and skim other abstractslooking for a more promising document. As a result of this process, auser typically has to download several documents until there is a goodmatch for the original search query.

Documents with large amounts of text data may be rendered and thenresized in order to create a visual abstract (also known as athumbnail). As is well known to one skilled in the art, rendering meansto process a document for representation. For example, an HTML documentincludes data and format instructions (i.e., tags). The formatinstructions need to be rendered before it can be displayed in itsintended way. Rendering is typically done with a web browser such asNetscape Navigator or MS Internet Explorer. The rendering engine of theweb browser essentially processes format instructions and converts theminto graphical elements, determines the layout and calculates theoverall appearance of the document.

However, after rendering and resizing the original body of text of theabstracts may not be readable because the font is too small. Moreover,with today's standard screen resolution, it may not be possible toproduce a readable font in this size. It would be helpful for the userto read the headings or title and be able to determine whether adocument is desirable for further reading. However, resizing algorithmsuse proportional resizing. The body text, which cannot be displayed atthis size, will be reduced to the same size as the heading. It would behelpful to resize the body text and use this additional space to enlargethe headings and titles so that the user can read them.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing and other problems of the conventional methods,it is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a methodand apparatus of efficiently processing search results obtained inresponse to a user query.

The method according to the present invention may include examiningdocument pointers returned by a search engine to identify a source fromwhich the documents are available, obtaining the documents from thesource and generating at least two visual abstracts for a desireddocument. Each of the visual abstracts is of a different size. A streamof data may be formatted such that when the data is displayed, a smallerone of the visual abstracts appears adjacent to a corresponding searchresult. A larger visual abstract may be displayed on the display screenwhen a cursor is moved over the smaller one of the visual abstracts. Thelarger visual abstract may also be removed from the display screen whenthe cursor is moved away from the smaller visual abstract.

The method according to the present invention may also includeprocessing search results obtained in response to a user query. Documentpointers returned by a search engine may be examined to identify asource from which the documents are available. The documents may beobtained from the source. Visual abstracts may be generated for each ofthe documents. Each visual abstract may be formed by manipulating acorresponding source document so as to enhance the visibility of atleast a first portion of the source document while degrading visibilityof at least a second portion of the source document. A stream of datamay be formatted such that when the data is displayed on a displayscreen, each visual abstract appears adjacent to a corresponding searchresult.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a computersystem for searching for a document. This system may include a clientsystem and a server system. The client system may be capable ofsupplying a search request to the server system. The server system mayprovide abstracts of documents to the client system. Further, the clientsystem may display the abstracts on a display screen. The abstracts mayinclude a written abstract and a first visual abstract of the documents.The server system may create a second visual abstract of one of thedocuments. The second visual abstract may be larger than the firstvisual abstract and the client system may display the second visualabstract when requested by a user.

Other objects, advantages and salient features of the invention willbecome apparent from the following detailed description taken inconjunction with the annexed drawings, which disclose preferredembodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be described in detail with reference to thefollowing drawings in which like reference numerals refer to likeelements and wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a result page following a typical online search;

FIG. 2 shows a medium-sized thumbnail of a selected document;

FIG. 3 shows the result page after the cursor has been moved from theresult page;

FIG. 4 shows the distributed client and server system according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 5 shows a web page having a title and a body of text;

FIG. 6 shows a web page having an enhanced title;

FIG. 7 shows a web page having an enhanced title and proportionedresizing;

FIG. 8 shows another client and server system according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram of the structure of an exemplaryinformation handling/computer system for use with the present invention;and

FIG. 10 illustrates a medium for storing a program for implementing themethod according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The present invention aims to enhance the user's ability to performonline searching. This may be accomplished by creating (and caching) amedium-sized thumbnail of a document so as to better view the document.This may also be accomplished by enhancing the title or heading of adocument or this may also be accomplished by dynamically presenting avisual abstract of a document.

A system according to the present invention may enhance searchingtechniques by displaying a medium sized visual abstract (i.e., imagethumbnail) on demand. This provides the user with a clue about how thedocument looks as well as provides a preview of the selected document'scontent. A preferred method provides a medium sized thumbnail (around300×200 pixels) in order to get a fairly good impression of the actualdocument. With this medium sized document, the user can read headlinesor topics and recognize images and fonts much better than prior artmethods. By reviewing the medium sized thumbnail, the user can determinewhether a document is a good match and therefore needs to be downloaded.Accordingly, there is no need to download the entire document from theserver to the client if the content of the medium size thumbnail doesnot properly match the original search query.

A medium sized thumbnail of a document can be obtained using existingimage compression technologies in order to create a document requiringapproximately 10–14 Kbytes as compared with an original document thatrequires more than ten times the amount of memory. The average size of aweb document is between 30–100 Kbytes.

According to the preferred method, a medium sized thumbnail may bedownloaded from the server to the client on demand. For instance, when auser moves a pointing device, such as a mouse cursor, over a summaryabstract of a desired document listed in a result page, a medium sizedthumbnail may be generated and displayed. The medium sized thumbnail ispreferably only created for potential documents that appear to match aquery. Generation of the medium sized thumbnail (also called mediumsized visual abstract) is preferably done on the server side. The serverpreferably uses a caching mechanism to store the medium sized visualabstracts in a cache database so that users who later access the samedocument need not regenerate the medium sized abstract. The database maybe programmed to store the medium sized visual abstract for a specificamount of time and then delete the abstract to conserve space. Theclient side of the system includes software that monitors the user'sbehavior, handles these events (such as downloading the medium sizedthumbnail) and performs the associated actions (i.e., displaying themedium sized thumbnail).

FIG. 1 shows a typical result page 5 based on an online search. Theresult page 5 may contain hyperlinks 10 to external resources thatmatched the original query. The result page 5 generally includes a shortsummary description 12 and a visual abstract (i.e., thumbnail) image 14for each document found in the search. The visual abstract image 14 isnot necessary but is done merely for convenience.

The user skims the written abstracts 12 and visual abstract images 14 todetermine the best match. In this example, the user believes thatdocument number 3 is the best potential match for his query. However,from reading through the written abstract 12 and viewing the visualabstract image 14, the user is not really sure whether document number 3is really a good match. Rather than clicking on the third hyperlink 10to download the entire document from the server to the client, which cantake a considerable amount of time, the user may move the mouse pointer(or other pointing device or cursor) over the visual abstract image 14.

When the mouse pointer (or cursor) is moved over one of the visualabstract images 14, a medium sized visual abstract (i.e., thumbnail) 16is requested from the server and will ultimately be displayed on theclient side as shown in FIG. 2. The user will better recognize theheadline, logos, images and title on the medium sized thumbnail 16 ascompared with the smaller visual abstract image 14. Using thisadditional information, the user can better determine whether thedocument is worth downloading, or the user may decide to continue toskim the remaining summaries to find a better document.

After a user has reviewed the medium sized visual abstract 16, he/shemay move the mouse pointer to another location on the result page. Thesystem is preferably programmed such that when the mouse pointer leavesthe region of the smaller visual abstract image 14, then the mediumsized thumbnail 16 disappears from the screen. FIG. 3 shows the resultpage 5 after the medium sized thumbnail 16 has been removed from thescreen. In order to speed up future processing, the medium sizedthumbnail 16 is cached in a database on the client side. Therefore, ifthe user decides to take a second look at the medium sized thumbnail 16of the third document, then the image will be directly loaded from thecache database rather than having to regenerate the medium sizedthumbnail 16.

The system is preferably implemented as a distributed client-serverapplication as described below with respect to FIG. 4. This disclosedsystem is not limiting as other systems that perform the above disclosedmethod are also within the scope of the present invention. As oneskilled in the art would understand, the system preferably comprisessoftware components.

On the client-side of the system, the event handler 20 tracks actions ofthe user. Typically users use pointing devices, such as a mouse, toscroll and move through displayed results. These movements are evaluatedby the event handler 20. If a user moves the mouse pointer over aspecific spot on a result item, or preferably over a (small) visualabstract 14, the event handler 20 triggers an event to the imagerequester 22 that contains the result item number/id (e.g., documentnumber) and the URL of the requested document. The event handler 20 mayalso be responsible for hiding or discarding the medium sized visualabstract 16 on the client side once it is no longer needed.

The image requester 22 requests the medium sized thumbnail 16 of adocument from the server. The request may be served either from a localcache on the client side via a HTTP request to the server side. Theimage requester 22 obtains the medium sized thumbnail 16 and passes itto the web browser for display on a display screen. If an error occurs(e.g. a medium sized thumbnail 16 cannot be loaded or generated), thenthe user will not be able to view the medium sized thumbnail 16.

The above-described client-side components and their basicfunctionalities are already integrated into most modern web browsertechnologies. These web browsers provide an application programminginterface (API) for scripting languages to achieve the functionalitiesdiscussed above.

The server-side components interact closely together to achieve thedesired result. The session manager 24 identifies user sessions andretrieves corresponding user settings. For example, the user may turnthe medium sized visual abstract feature off. This is desirable if auser uses a text-based web browser (e.g. Lynx) where he/she is not ableto view images. The session manager 24 forwards the request to the URLloader 26.

The URL loader 26 looks to the local cache (i.e., cache database 30) byasking the cache manager 28 whether a medium sized thumbnail 16 for therequested document is already stored in the cache database 30. Thissaves time and increases the overall performance of the system. Thesystem may also include additional component(s) that detect idle cyclesof the system and then uses these to generate the medium sized thumbnail16 in advance.

When a medium sized thumbnail 16 cannot be retrieved from the cachedatabase 30, the URL loader 26 downloads the requested document from therepository (such as the Internet or database) and passes the contents tothe rendering engine 32.

The rendering engine 32 renders the document after receiving thedocument from the URL loader 26. After a successful rendering of thedocument, the result is passed to the image processor 34.

The image processor 34 captures the rendered document and resizes theimage so that it will have a “medium” size in accordance with thepresent invention. A “medium” size preferably has a width betweenapproximately 250 to 400 pixel units, and a height of approximately 170to 300 pixel units. JPEG compression results in an image size of between10 Kbyte to 18 Kbyte on the average. After the image is created, theimage processor 34 stores the image in the cache manager 28. The imageis passed to the image requester 22 on the client side so that themedium sized thumbnail 16 can be displayed.

As discussed above, the medium sized thumbnails 16 are very useful toenable users to skim faster through a large result set. A medium sizedthumbnail 16 is preferably created for only one document at any time soas to save time and network bandwidth.

Another feature of the present invention relates to enhancing the visualabstract (i.e., the thumbnail image) by enlarging the title, headingsand logo of a document in the thumbnail image. It is helpful to the userto be able to read the title and headings of the text as the body of thetext is generally not readable until the document is fully downloaded.

To illustrate the problem, FIG. 5 shows a typical web page documentcontaining a title (or heading) and a body of text 42 in small text.When generating the visual abstract, the present invention may detectportions of the document that are more important (e.g. heading, title)and extract them into an intermediary temporary document. The temporarydocument may then be passed to a rendering engine and then resized. Theresult is a small thumbnail in which the user is able to read theheading and/or the title.

For the example shown in FIG. 5, the system preferably extracts theheading “Culture and Technological Obsolescence”. The detection is doneby parsing the original document to create a new temporary document thatenhances important information. Parsing of the document is preferablydone using a standard HTML parser. The parsing process looks forheadlines that are marked in HTML using tags such as the <TITLE> tag.These structure tags typically contain relevant information about thetopic of a document. FIG. 6 shows an example of the temporary documentin which the title/heading has been enhanced to create an enhancedtitle/heading 44. In the temporary document, the body of text 42preferably has not been resized.

After the rendering, standard proportional resizing can be applied tothe temporary document to create the visual abstract as shown in FIG. 7,which includes a small visual abstract 50 with enhanced title/headings44.

The enhanced title/heading 44 allows the user to more easily read theheading. However, the body text may still not be readable. The presentinvention may enhance the visual abstract so that the user will be ableto determine whether it is worth taking a closer look at this document.This has several advantages. First, users will be able to identifyheadings and/or a title of a small visual thumbnail. Second, theinvention will save downloading time and network bandwidth because afterlooking at this small thumbnail, the user may skip downloading theoriginal document. Third, the invention greatly improves the overallvalue of a search results page because images are easier to skim thantext documents.

Another feature of the present invention is to dynamically present avisual abstract of a result item (document) of a search result set. Thistakes advantage of the ability to recognize images faster then writtentext. Thus, a result page will present a list of images containing avisual abstract of the original document along with links/pointers tothe resource, title and text abstract as additional/optional items.

The visual abstracts may be dynamically created “on the fly” as opposedto a static approach, which has a disadvantage that it cannot quicklyreflect changes of a web document. By using a static approach, thevisual abstract is not synchronized within a short period of time. Theuser may then review an incorrect visual abstract representation of thedocument. Moreover, the present invention preferably generates visualabstracts only if requested. The system generally will not generateabstracts for documents that have not been requested.

Because rendering and capturing of a larger result set can take aconsiderable amount of time, the system provides a caching mechanism toenhance the overall performance.

This system according to the present invention preferably works togetherwith a text based search engine. The user submits a query to the searchengine. The system analyzes the search results and generates a visualabstract of the original document. Then, the rendered document isconverted to an image format (JPEG, TIFF) and the image is resized to asmaller size (i.e., a thumbnail size). The rendering and imageconverting process is a time consuming task, which can be done off-linefor performance reasons. As a result, the modified result page of thesearch engine contains visual abstracts (thumbnails) of the documentsrather then text based summaries.

The system will now be described that performs all the tasks ofgenerating a visual abstract during a user query process on the fly. Forperformance reasons, the complete process can be enhanced using existingcaching technologies, which is handled by the cache manager 28 as shownin FIG. 8.

When a user issues a query 60, the session manager 24 receives therequest. The session manager 24 tracks user sessions using existing webtechnologies (e.g. Cookies, Active Server Pages) as well as analyzes theuser settings to determine display preferences. Users may enable ordisable the visual abstracts. If the visual abstracts are disabled, thesystem passes the user query to the search engine system, waits for thereturned results and forwards the returned results to the representationmanager 62.

If the visual abstracts are enabled, it passes the user query to thesearch engine system, waits for the returned results and forwards thereturned results along with session information to the URL loader 26.

The URL loader 26 takes a list of URLs as an input and then loads thedocument associated with an URL. When a document is loaded, it forwardsthe document along with the session id to the rendering engine 32. If adocument cannot be loaded, an error message may be passed directly tothe representation manager 62 so that the representation manager 62 canskip this entry.

For performance reasons, the URL loader 26 asks the cache manager 28whether the desired URL was previously loaded. In this case it candirectly retrieve the rendered and captured image from the cache manager28 and pass the visual abstract to the representation manager 62. Thissaves a lot of work and time and therefore speeds up response time.

The rendering engine 32 takes a HTML document as an input and rendersthe document. This rendering process can be compared with viewing a HTMLdocument within a web browser. The web browser parses the document andgenerates the visual representation. However, the result of therendering process may not be immediately presented to the user. It's anintermediary result that will be passed to the image capturer 64. If therendering process fails, an error message will be passed to therepresentation manager 62 so that the representation manager 62 can skipthis entry.

The image capturer 64 takes a screen capture of the rendered documentand generates an image thumbnail by resizing the original image. Thisimage may then be passed to the cache manager 28 along with a time stampfor later reuse. This prevents the system from skipping rendering andimage processing for documents that were already rendered. The imagethumbnail along with session information and URL is passed to therepresentation manager 62, which will construct the result page for theuser and integrate the visual abstracts to the summary abstract listing.

Finally, the cache manager 28 stores image thumbnails (i.e., visualabstracts) in a cache database 30 and keeps track of the rendereddocuments along with a time stamp for each resource. Before the timeintensive process of rendering and image processing is initiated, thesystem first queries the cache manager 28 to determine whether thedocument is already processed. If so, then the cache manager 28 simplyreturns the visual abstract.

In summary, the system dynamically creates visual abstracts for searchresults. The system focuses on the dynamical visual abstract (thumbnail)generation for documents obtained as a search result rather thenpresenting visual thumbnails of static content. Further, the system doesnot use the visual abstract (thumbnail of a document) for querying butrather uses the visual abstract to help users identify importantcontents faster by looking at an image thumbnail.

While the overall methodology of the invention described above generallyrelates to a client-server environment, the invention can be embodied inany number of different types of systems and executed in any number ofdifferent ways, as would be known by one ordinarily skilled in the art.

For example, as shown in FIG. 9, a typical hardware configuration 800 ofan information handling/computer system incorporates the client sideenvironment. The system preferably has at least one processor or centralprocessing unit (CPU) 811. The CPUs 811 are interconnected via a systembus 812 to a random access memory (RAM) 814, read-only memory (ROM) 816,input/output (I/O) adaptor 818 (for connecting peripheral devices suchas disk units 821 and tape drives 840 to the bus 812), user interfaceadapter 822 (for connecting a keyboard 824, mouse 826, speaker 828,microphone 832, and/or other user interface device to the bus 812),communication adapter 834 for connecting an information handling systemto the Internet, Intranet, a data processing network, etc., and adisplay adapter 836 (for connecting the bus 812 to a display device838). Additionally, an external controller 850 can be coupled to thesystem through the network and communications adapter 834.

Further, while the present invention has been described primarily interms of software or software/hardware configuration, the same orsimilar functions could be implemented in a dedicated hardwarearrangement.

In addition to the hardware/software environment described above, adifferent aspect of the invention includes a computer-implemented methodfor searching for documents. As an example, this method may beimplemented in the particular environment discussed above.

Such a method may be implemented, for example, by operating a computer,as embodied by a digital data processing apparatus, to execute asequence of machine-readable instructions. These instructions may residein various types of signal-bearing media.

Thus, this aspect of the present invention is directed to a programmedproduct, including signal-bearing media tangibly embodying a program ofmachine-readable instructions executable by a digital data processor toperform a method of searching for documents.

This signal-bearing media may include, for example, a random accessmemory (RAM) such as, for example, a fast-access storage containedwithin the computer. Alternatively, the instructions may be contained inanother signal-bearing media, such as a magnetic storage diskette 900shown exemplarily in FIG. 10, directly or indirectly accessible by thecomputer.

Whether contained in the diskette, the computer, or elsewhere, theinstructions may be stored on a variety of machine-readable data storagemedia, such as DASD storage (e.g. a conventional “hard drive” or a RAIDarray), magnetic tape, electronic read-only memory (e.g. ROM, EPROM, orEEPROM), an optical storage device (e.g. CD-ROM, WORM, DVD, digitaloptical tape, etc.), paper “punch” cards, or other suitablesignal-bearing media including transmission media such as digital andanalog and communication links and wireless. In an illustrativeembodiment of the invention, the machine-readable instructions maycomprise software object code, compiled from a suitable language.

While the invention has been described with reference to specificembodiments, the description of the specific embodiments is illustrativeonly and is not to be considered as limiting the scope of the invention.Various other modifications and changes may occur to those skilled inthe art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A method of processing search results obtained in response to a userquery, the method comprising: providing document pointers returned by asearch engine to identify a source from which documents are available,each said document pointer including a Uniform Resource Locator (URL)displayed as part of a search result by said search engine; generatingat least two visual abstracts for at least one of said documents, eachof said two visual abstracts being a thumbnail image of a differentsize, said visual abstracts being generated after first manipulatingsaid document so as to enhance a visibility of at least a portion ofsaid document, said manipulating being performed by filtering saiddocument; and formatting a stream of data such that when said data isdisplayed on a display screen regarding said at least one of saiddocuments, a smaller one of said visual abstracts appears adjacent to acorresponding search result.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein saidfiltering is performed on an image in said document.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: displaying a larger one of said visualabstracts on said display screen when requested by said user.
 4. Themethod of claim 3, further comprising: storing data relating to saidlarger one of said visual abstracts.
 5. The method of claim 3, whereinsaid larger one of said visual abstracts is displayed on said displayscreen when a cursor is moved over said smaller one of said visualabstracts.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: removing saidlarger one of said visual abstracts from said display screen.
 7. Themethod of claim 6, wherein said larger one of said visual abstracts isremoved from said display screen when said cursor is moved away fromsaid smaller one of said visual abstracts.
 8. A method of processingsearch results obtained in response to a user query, the methodcomprising: examining document pointers returned by a search engine toidentify a source from which documents are available, each said documentpointer including a Uniform Resource Locator (URL); obtaining saiddocuments from said source; generating a visual abstract for each ofsaid documents, each visual abstract being a thumbnail image, each saidthumbnail image comprising a visual similarity of said document asreduced in size, a title of said document ensured to be readable on eachsaid thumbnail image; formatting a stream of data such that when saiddata is displayed on a display screen, each visual abstract appearsadjacent to a corresponding search result; creating a larger visualabstract of at least one of said documents; displaying said larger oneof said visual abstracts on said display screen on demand; and removingsaid larger one of said visual abstracts from said display screen. 9.The method of claim 8, further comprising: storing data relating to saidlarger one of said visual abstracts.
 10. The method of claim 8, whereinsaid larger one of said visual abstracts is displayed on said displayscreen when a cursor is moved over said smaller one of said visualabstracts.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein said larger one of saidvisual abstracts is removed from said display screen when said cursor ismoved away from said smaller one of said visual abstracts.
 12. A methodof processing search results obtained in response to a user query, themethod comprising: examining document pointers returned by a searchengine to identify sources from which documents are available, each saiddocument pointer including a Uniform Resource Locator (URL); obtainingsaid documents from said sources; generating a visual abstract for eachof said documents, each visual abstract being a thumbnail image, eachsaid thumbnail image comprising a visual similarity of said document asreduced in size, a title of said document ensured to be readable on eachsaid thumbnail image; formatting a stream of data such that when saiddata is displayed on a display screen, each visual abstract appearsadjacent to a corresponding search result; determining whether a portionof a source document should be enhanced for visibility relative toanother portion; and manipulating said source document determined tohave a portion to be enhanced so that one portion therein is manipulatedto improve a visibility while another portion therein is manipulated todegrade a visibility, wherein said manipulating includes filtering saidsource document.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein said filtering isperformed on an image in said source document.
 14. The method of claim12, wherein said portion of said source document to be enhancedcorresponds to at least one of a title and a heading of said sourcedocument.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein one of said title and saidheading is enlarged as compared with a second portion of said sourcedocument.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein said second portion ofsaid source document corresponds to a body of text of said sourcedocument.
 17. A method of searching for a document, said methodcomprising: supplying a search request; providing abstracts of documentson a screen display that correspond to said search request, saidabstracts including a written abstract that contains a summary of acontents of said documents and a first visual abstract of each of saiddocuments; creating a second visual abstract of one of said documents,each of said first visual abstract and said second visual abstractrespectively being a thumbnail image of said document, wherein saidsecond visual abstract is larger than said first visual abstract;displaying said second visual abstract when requested by a user, saidsecond visual abstract being displayed on said display screen when saiduser moves a pointing device over a corresponding one of said firstvisual abstract; and removing said second visual abstract from saiddisplay screen when said user moves said pointing device away from saidcorresponding one of said first visual abstracts.
 18. The method ofclaim 17, wherein said first visual abstract is created aftermanipulating a source document so as to enhance visibility of at least afirst portion of said source document.
 19. The method of claim 18,wherein said first portion corresponds to at least one of a title and aheading of said document.
 20. The method of claim 17, furthercomprising: storing data relating to said second visual abstract in acache database.
 21. The method of claim 20, further comprising: deletingsaid data relating to said second visual abstract in said cache databaseafter a predetermined amount of time.
 22. A program storage devicereadable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructionsexecutable by said machine to perform method steps for processing searchresults obtained in response to a user query, said method comprising:supplying a search request; providing abstracts of documents on a screendisplay that correspond to said search request, said abstracts includinga written abstract containing a summary of a contents of said documentsand a first visual abstract of said documents; creating a second visualabstract of one of said documents, each of said first visual abstractand said second visual abstract respectively being a thumbnail image ofsaid document, wherein said second visual abstract is larger than saidfirst visual abstract; displaying said second visual abstract whenrequested by a user, said second visual abstract being displayed on saiddisplay screen when said user moves a pointing device over acorresponding one of said first visual abstracts; and removing saidsecond visual abstract from said display screen when said user movessaid pointing device away from said corresponding one of said firstvisual abstracts.
 23. A computer system for searching for a document,said system comprising: a client system; and a server system, saidclient system supplying a search request to said server system, saidserver system providing abstracts of documents to said client system,said abstracts corresponding to said search request, said client systemdisplaying said abstracts on a screen display, said abstracts includinga written abstract of a contents of said documents and a first visualabstract of each of said documents, said server system creating a secondvisual abstract of one of said documents, each of said first visualabstract and said second visual abstract respectively being a thumbnailimage of said document, said second visual abstract being larger thansaid first visual abstract when displayed on said screen display, saidclient system displaying said second visual abstract when requested by auser, said second visual abstract being displayed on said screen displaywhen said user moves a pointing device over said first visual abstract,said second visual abstract being removed from said screen display whensaid user moves said pointing device away from said first visualabstract of said document.
 24. The system of claim 23, wherein saidfirst visual abstract is created after manipulating a source document soas to enhance visibility of at least a first portion of said sourcedocument.